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D’Amico hit with $4m pollution fine in the US

D’Amico Shipping Italia, company part of d’Amico Società di Navigazione group, admitted to dumping oily waste and other pollutants in American waters rather than paying to dispose of them properly, and will pay a $4m penalty and be placed on probation for four years. The Department of Justice said in a statement that the Italian shipping group pleaded guilty in Newark to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

The charge involved the product tanker Cielo di Milano (sold by d’Amico International Shipping last year) that visited ports in New Jersey, Maryland and Florida multiple times in 2014 and 2015.

“The company admitted that the ship’s crew intentionally bypassed required pollution prevention equipment by discharging machinery space bilge water and oily waste from the vessel’s engine room through its sewage system into the sea” the Department of Justice noted in a release. “The company also admitted that crew members falsified the vessel’s Oil Record Book, a required log regularly inspected by the Coast Guard; made false statements to the Coast Guard during its inspection of the tanker Cielo di Milano in January 2015; and destroyed the vessel’s sounding log after the Coast Guard had boarded the vessel”.

The proposed $4m penalty includes $1m in community service payments to restore the coastal environment of New Jersey.

Nicola Capuzzo

Nicola is a highly qualified journalist focused on transport economics, logistics and shipping with broad experience in both online and printed media. Specialties: shipping, ship finance, banking, commodities and port economics. He regularly interviews Europe's top shipowner executives for Maritime CEO magazine.
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